Him, and my Muddied Name
by koder
Summary: AU. "You know, you can always come to me if you need to, you know where I am."  It was a promise he made to me years ago, back when we were still friends in high school, before graduation. I need him to keep that promise now, more than ever.


**Disclaimer: I do not own APH or it's characters.**

**This story was a request for InkSheWolf of deviantART**

**Story told from Arthur's POV**

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><p>"<em>You know, you can always come to me if you need to, you know where I am."<em>

It was a promise he made to me years ago, back when we were still friends in high school, before graduation. I need him to keep that promise now, more than ever.

I'd taken a risk, and it hadn't paid off. My name was mud, and all because of a few drinks. It wasn't good for anyone to be associated with me, Arthur Kirkland anymore. That was how bad my reputation had become.

It had been the same at primary, middle, and then high school. I'd been the outcast. I hadn't needed anyone. I'd been content to stay in my own little fantasy world with Tinkerbell, Captain Hook and the Flying Mint Bunny, but he showed me a friend in him, and pulled me out into the glorious bright world that contained other people. I even found myself making a few friends. But they're gone now. I haven't seen them since graduation either.

I don't know what's happened to them, but I bet they know what's happened to me. It's been all over the news. They'd turn away from me now. I wasn't someone they'd want to know anymore, if they ever did, I'm not the most pleasant person.

I had about ten dollars and the clothes on my back to my name, and I was walking the streets of Los Angeles, hoping he still lived in the same place, and hoping he hadn't gone back on that promise. It had taken me weeks to get here from New York. The last few days had been me walking, I stopped catching the bus. I didn't want to run out of money for food.

They'd come and taken everything. I'd lost everything. But none of it really mattered.

It had started raining, but I was almost there. I recognised this street. It was near my old house. And that street! Over there! My old school was down that one. I should have come back sooner, before my name was charred and blackened. Even in this place that was a paradise during my childhood, people would hate that man that used to be so nice and polite.

I'd never need to be polite around him. I was always myself, and I'd been in love with him, before I realised I'd never have him. He was too handsome, too popular, to down-right nice, under my polite façade I used around adults I was a self-centred bastard. Just because he promised me he'd be there for me didn't make me special. He told me once that he wanted to be everyone's hero.

Is it unfair that I just wanted him to be mine? Yes, probably. But he was my friend, and he was happy, so I had to be happy too.

This is it now, then. That ever-familiar garden, that house. The bike tracks in the pavement from when we rode through the wet cement when we were both twelve, the missing paver in the driveway, from when we'd gone treasure hunting when we were nine.

What was I thinking? He'd have left by now. No-one like him would live with his parents at this age. I turned away from the house, and started back down the path.

"Hey Artie! Wait up!"

Great, so now I was hallucinating? Kick me while I'm down, why don't you! If I start running I might be able to get away from this voice…

A hand, comforting and familiar, on my shoulder. I turn, to look at the one who put it there.

"A-alfred?"

His signature grin hasn't changed after all this time. But the smile doesn't quite reach his eyes.

"I heard about what happened."

Oh great, he knows. He's going to hate me, _I_ would hate me.

"And I don't care."

His mouth finds mine, and it seems to kiss away all the sadness and self-loathing, and all of the hate. I feel relieved, and I'm crying, and I never cry, not ever. It's been so long, and though I thought it did, my love for him didn't disappear. I want this moment to last forever, but I have to breathe, or else I won't get another moment like this.

"_You know, you can always come to me if you need to, you know where I am."_

He kept his promise, and deep down inside I always knew he would. He takes my hand, and we walk back to his house, and it's like before graduation all over again.

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><p><strong>This story was based on the song "She Will be Loved" by Maroon 5<strong>

**Hope you liked it!**


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